American philosophy

n Plato 's Republic, an analogy is struck between the state of the city and the state of the soul. While, in the latter case, a well balanced, or just, soul is one that is commanded by reason, and in which the spirited and appetitive parts of the soul play subordinate roles, a well balanced, or just, city is one in which the rulers are commanded by reason, the soldiers by spirit, and the laymen by appetites. The difficulty implicit in this state of affairs is that it does not appear, on…

overarching ideals of the desensitized majorities. Adorno also does not give any direct guide to fulfilling the requirements necessary to reach that point in time, even as he argues that it indeed needs to happen at some point. The numerous other philosophies, while important for the close and immediate problems faced by humans blessed/cursed with reasoning and thus the…

When it comes to trying to explain the natural order of the world and how things work, most people turn to religion or some sort of belief. During the Enlightenment, most Europeans or Americans believed either in some form of Christianity or Catholicism whether it be Protestantism, Puritanism, Anglicanism, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Lutheranism and Pietism to name a few. There were more held beliefs and different reformations during the creation of America, but those are just a few to…

her as a means, and the end would be to help other children. Doing so makes such an act immoral. This would be the case if the term humanity applies to Baby Angela. In “Kant’s Formula of Humanity,” Christine M. Korsgaard, an American philosopher and a professor of Philosophy at Harvard University, states: “When Kant says that the characteristic of humanity is the power to set an end, then, he is not merely referring to personality, which would encompass the power to adopt an end for moral or…

Ethics and/or moral reasoning is the invisible set of rules we live by, or most of us live by anyway, that help us to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. A lot of these rules and guidelines are just so natural and automatic to us in nature that we don’t even have to think about them, we just know what is right and go along with it. These morals can change from person to person based on cultural and religious beliefs, but are overall very similar. “The identification of ethics…

A recent poll conducted by CNN in February of 2018 stated that while 72% of Americans are alarmed about foreign interference in US elections, that number increases to a whopping 90% among Democrats and only 53% among Republicans (Stewart). The poll was conducted right after a special counsel in the Justice Department, headed by Robert…

Paul D. Cottingham Fr. Kurt Messick Epistemology September 13, 2014 Kant’s and Hume’s epistemology Immanuel Kant and David Hume were notable philosophers within the modern era, each with their own respective ideology and philosophy; Kant was influenced by rationalism, crafted a theory after the Copernican Revolution explaining the role of human reason in obtaining knowledge, whereas Hume, who was influenced by skepticism, put an end to pure reason and an end to the Enlightenment Era. In the…

499) When the decision was made to bring back those Americans affected and infected by Ebola it was based of the law of nature. This Law speaks to the need of rational consistence. That action preformed for one, if deemed moral thru rational consideration, must then be performed for everyone regardless of…

Literature teaches us many things on a daily basis. Different ways to look at life, at nature, at the people around us. It brings us into a whole new world that we can only see by reading the words of others. Eagleton, Nietzsche and Emerson give us that opportunity to see life in a different way by the lessons they write about. These writings have their differences but also connect with each other in some way. Eagleton, Nietzsche and Emerson were important writers of their time periods.…

The world is an extremely complicated place, with issues constantly coming to the forefront, and it is imperative for society to address them. However, the answer is not always easy, and many theorists disagree with each other. This holds especially true for the philosophers Machiavelli and Thoreau. Machiavelli advocated a strong central government that protects its people with an undefeated army, even at the expense of giving up liberties. Contrarily, Thoreau emphasized justice, freedom, and…